Yuliya Pechenkina of Russia and Jana Rawlinson of Australia in action in the Women's 400m Hurdles Final (© Bongarts/Getty Images)
Australia’s 2007 World 400m Hurdles champion Jana Rawlinson has tonight told how she is "shattered" and "numb" after a toe injury forced her to pull out of the Beijing Olympics.
Complications with the injury have brought an end to Rawlinson's Olympic campaign. It is a sad case of deja vu for the 25-year-old who suffered a knee injury on the eve of the Athens Olympics four years ago which effectively ruined her chances of gold. At the time Rawlinson was also the reigning World champion having won the first of her two World crowns in Paris the previous summer.
Rawlinson who hadn’t run since her 54.42 win at the IAAF World Athletics Tour meet in Shanghai, China on 28 September 2007, seemed to be on the road to recovery recently when she returned to the track last week (1 July) in Bydgoszcz running 55.94 to finish second behind Poland's Anna Jesien.
"I am numb,'' Rawlinson told News Limited's 'Beijing Now' website tonight.
"I'm shattered. I feel like I have let a lot of people down.”
"I have thought about this really hard and made the decision on Monday night but had two nights to sleep on it.”
"Yesterday I went to the track on my own and tried to run again but I still couldn't even run in a straight line.”
"We have tried everything now and I'm at the stage where I can't actually even run.''
The news comes just a day after Russia's World record holder for the 400m Hurdles Yuliya Pechonkina also declared herself unfit for Beijing due to a heart related illness - see 'related content' below the photo to the right of this story to read about Pechonkina's Beijing decision.
Mike Hurst for the IAAF
